Prostate cancer is a common public health problem. In 2010, this disease was diagnosed in an estimated 217,730 men (28% of all male cancers) and resulted in 32,050 deaths (11% of male cancer deaths) (Jemal et al., CA Cancer J Clin 59(4):225-49 (2009)). If left untreated, the majority of prostate cancers remain asymptomatic and indolent for decades (Klotz et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology (2010) 28:126-31). If treated with radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, the risk of metastasis is reduced, but erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence and rectal bleeding may occur, affecting the patient's quality of life. Because it is currently difficult to determine accurately which patients will develop metastatic disease, physicians treat patients with mid-to-late stage local disease aggressively, even when such treatment may not be required. Clinical parameters, such as serum concentration of prostate specific antigen (PSA), extension beyond surgical margins, invasion of seminal vesicles, extension beyond the capsule, Gleason score, prostate weight, race and year of surgery, are employed in existing nomograms for prediction of local recurrences (Ohori et al., Mod Pathol 17(3): 349-359 (2004)), but local recurrence and, therefore, these parameters have limited utility for predicting progression of the disease to distant sites (Nakagawa et al., PLoS One 3(5):e2318 (2008)). Development of a robust risk model that accurately predicts the potential of a local prostate cancer to metastasize would justify aggressive treatment in high-risk cases and improve the quality of life for men with indolent disease.